Australian special forces commanders knew subordinates were planting weapons on slain Afghan civilians to conceal unlawful killings but failed to intervene, according to an unreleased military inquiry published this week.
The executive summary of a 2021 investigation conducted by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) delivers a scathing assessment of leadership within Special Operations Command, The Guardian Australia reported. The document reveals that the deliberate staging of combat scenes was not merely the conduct of isolated soldiers, but an open secret tolerated across multiple levels of field command.
Complicity in 'throwdown' deceptions
According to the newly surfaced findings, several Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) officers were aware that troops routinely carried foreign weapons, handheld radios, and equipment known colloquially as "throwdowns". These unregistered items were placed beside deceased Afghan non-combatants to falsely portray them as enemy combatants killed in action, thereby subverting rules of engagement and reporting mechanisms.
Rather than halting the practice or reporting the breaches through formal disciplinary channels, officers repeatedly failed to take corrective action. The report concluded that this institutional acquiescence enabled the normalisation of unlawful behaviour during extended rotations in Uruzgan province.
Systemic failure of operational oversight
The IGADF review, which examined the cultural and systemic environment of special forces deployments between 2005 and 2016, detailed a profound "breakdown of command" and a widespread degradation of core military standards.
Investigators found that intense operational tempos, insular unit cultures, and unchecked deference to elite operators eroded the willingness of commissioned officers to enforce discipline. This supervisory paralysis "resulted in episodes of potential and actual egregious behaviour", allowing severe breaches of the laws of armed conflict to persist without immediate challenge from troop leaders.
The findings substantiate long-held concerns that deployed officers either turned a blind eye to cover-ups or actively neglected their duty to maintain oversight, creating an environment where operational expediency overshadowed fundamental military law.
Lingering fallout from Afghanistan operations
The disclosures inject fresh scrutiny into the legacy of Australia's longest military engagement and follow the landmark 2020 Brereton Inquiry, which found credible information regarding the unlawful killing of 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners by Australian forces.
While previous investigations placed significant public focus on the conduct of non-commissioned patrol commanders, critics and legal observers have persistently questioned whether higher-ranking officers escaped formal scrutiny.
The 2021 cultural review makes clear that awareness of deceptive field tactics reached into the commissioned officer corps, intensifying questions regarding administrative and command responsibility throughout the senior echelons of the defence establishment.
Mounting pressure for command accountability
The quiet online publication of the summary has prompted renewed demands for transparency regarding how the Australian Defence Force addresses supervisory failures. Although Defence continues to implement structural reforms under the Afghanistan Inquiry Implementation Plan, the revelation that commanders knowingly permitted war crimes indicators will increase pressure on the current leadership.
Legal and defence observers maintain that institutional accountability cannot be achieved until the breakdown of command identified in the report is confronted directly, ensuring that those in positions of authority face rigorous scrutiny alongside personnel on the ground.
